About 90 people are being evacuated from their homes on the river Stour near Bournemouth.

Police began evacuating residents of the Ilford Bridge Home Park shortly after 3am after a severe flood warning from the Environment Agency.

Officers have been monitoring the levels of the river closely for the past 24 hours and people living in the threatened areas were warned of the possibility of flooding and evacuation.

Police described the efforts the rescue effort as a "multi-agency operation", and advised people who have concerns about flooding to contact the Environment Agency.

Emergency services are also making ready to evacuate people in Christchurch, Dorset, after the agency issued another severe flood warning – warning of danger to life – at 5.40am, the third such alert in place.

Thousands of people face a cold and wet Christmas after storms caused widespread flooding and power failures across Britain.

Scores of homes have been left under water and tens of thousands of people will endure a Christmas Day without electricity after torrential rain lashed the country.

The coastguard rescued 76 people from a caravan park that was flooded by the river Medway at Yalding in Kent on Tuesday night.

By 8pm the water was chest deep, the coastguard said, and a helicopter was brought in as a precaution while the last 21 people were led to safety from rising floodwaters and listing caravans.

Once on dry land the Salvation Army took them to a local leisure centre.

About 75,000 homes across Britain are still without power, the Energy Networks Association said, and engineers worked through the night.

The Environment Agency said by Christmas Eve 150 properties had been flooded in England, mainly in the south and in Surrey and Kent, with numbers expected to rise.

Firefighters in the two counties broke a five-hour nationwide strike last night to help deal with the effects of the storms.

In Surrey residents were evacuated from their homes in Dorking, Leatherhead and Guildford, while more evacuations occurred in Tonbridge, Kent.

Some 40 properties were evacuated in Godalming because of concerns over the height of the river Wey, Surrey police said.

In the Mole valley evacuations took place in Leatherhead and Dorking after the river Mole burst its banks in several areas.

Police said the Flanchford bridge over the river near Reigate had collapsed, but no one was injured.

A severe flood warning, warning of danger to life, remains in place for the river at Leatherhead and Fetcham in Surrey after it rose to record-breaking levels. Levels were now beginning to fall, the Environment Agency said.

Roads were also closed in Guildford and Old Woking in Surrey, police said. Surrey Fire and Rescue said last night that it was dealing with "many rescues" because of the flooding.

The agency on Wednesday had almost 130 flood warnings across England and Wales, mainly in the south-east, the south-west and the Midlands. A further 226 flood alerts were also in place, with 90 in the south-east alone.